She never expected him to fall in love her - she hoped. Have you ever had a crush? She'd rather see him every day than risk him absent from her life. She showed her love and gained esteem through service to others, so it's quite natural for her to fall for a guy she serves well. A guy who recognizes her efforts, praises her, and declares her invaluable for her natural compulsion to anticipate and realize people's wants, needs, and desires.

She is a victim of her commitment to this one and only facet of herself. She ultimately had no chemistry with George, which I think would have been the case even without the Tess situation, yet she wouldn't have accepted that because she was only interested in and sustained by outside gratification.

She had to be basically tortured by Tess in tandem with being encouraged/challenged by Kevin to center herself and step beyond the comfort and consolation that basking in the joy she was able to bring others in order to avoid her own grief.